Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers ǀ Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone

Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers, curator of African Art and head of the Arts of Africa and the Americas at the MIA, offers insights into “Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone,” a new exhibition featuring 75 artworks collected by William Siegmann, a Minneapolis native and former curator of African art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Covering a period from the 15th to the late 20th centuries, the exhibition provides an overview of the region’s traditional art forms such as masks, wooden and stone statuary, metalwork, and textiles.

Musu Bryant-Bah, a local community leader from West Africa, will join Grootaers at the end of his talk to address the current situation in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and the impact of Ebola.